Determination of human brain weight in vivo by skull measurements

The length, width as well as the axial, sagittal and transversal circumferences of the skull were measured before autopsy in 112 cadavers. The brain was weighed immediately after removal. A residual analysis of the correlations between skull measurements and the true brain weight was carried out, resulting in the formula: brain weight, g = (21.8 x axial circumference, cm) + (13.9 x transversal circumference, cm) + (2.105 x length x width, cm) - 890. The mean brain weight as calculated by this formula was within 1.5% of the true weight in the male and within 0.08% in the female cadavers examined.